9/11: Fayza Sohail learns more about her faith and the Bible as she answers strangers' questions

View full sizeMOTOYA NAKAMURA/THE OREGONIANFayza Sohail does her best to answer people's questions about Islam. "I'm no expert," she says. "What we don't know about each other creates hatred."

At summer's end in 2001, Fayza Sohail's family visited New York before she began her freshman year at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Months passed before the young Muslim developed the film from that trip. Sorting through the pictures, she was stunned to see the twin towers.

"This is no longer here," she remembers thinking. Sohail, who was born in Bangladesh, came to Portland with her family when she was 5. She says she's always been a leader but 9/11 forced her to focus on her faith and defend it to strangers.

"Life's experiences do shape who you are," says Sohail, 27, a graduate of medical school who lives in Beaverton with her husband of two years and is applying for residency programs.

"I've read the Bible. I've learned more about Islam so I can answer the questions people ask me. They ask about violence in the Quran. In a passage about warfare and defensive tactics, there will be violent words -- as compared to passages about being a good human being. You must read it all in context.

"I'm no expert, but wearing a veil, people know I'm Muslim. Sometimes they are hostile. I don't think they see me as a person. In their minds, I am a source of harm or danger. You are the other, the unknown. When people approach me, I try to assess the situation. If they're confrontational, I try to defuse their anger.